Top 5 TV shows you must watch before you die

Hello everyone :) ! Let me tell you, my personal list of Top 5 TV shows you must watch before you die.

Well, TV is funny. It has a thousand channels and ten thousand shows, yet when we sit in front of TV to watch something, all you get is some pathetic shows.

Why do you try out the list here? It doesn’t matter how you watch it: On your TV, laptop or even tablet. If you like TV, these are the shows that you simply can’t afford to miss in your lifetime.

1. L O S T

The beginning of television can be traced back to 1884. But it took 120 years finally to use this medium to the fullest... for LOST to begin in 2004.

What is L O S T all about?

It’s the story of survivors of a plane crash in a strange island.  That’s where it all begins.

It’s a mystery. It’s a thriller. It’s a drama.

Spanning 6 seasons, LOST told the biggest and the most intriguing story ever told in the history of television. LOST is a one big epic story with a beginning and an end.  Probably there wont be another show like LOST and so it will spoil you, because anything else you watch after this show, would be just not be “LOST” enough.

2. F.R.I.E.N.D.S

This show basically defined the 90s- A Sitcom about a couple of friends living in New York. Yup that’s pretty much it.(Ed- My best friend thinks friends should be on the top spot!) A complete LOL show that takes you on a ride filled with loads of laughter, fun, love and the best of all- friendship.  It hasn’t aged a bit even though it has been ten years now since its finale.  If you love to laugh, go watch it. It will make your life seem a way lot easier.

3. 24

Jack bauer. He is the man, he is the best action figure I have ever come across. What makes him so special? It is because he is a human. Unlike other heroes where they win all the time, every where, Jack bauer is a brave man yet he doesn’t always win and he has to make a lot of personal sacrifices to do what he is supposed to do. He is a CTU (Counter Terrorist Unit) agent who has to stop viruses, bombs and assassination attempts in L.A The best part of 24 is that the story is told in real time and so no flashbacks or flashforwards. 24 episodes of a season potrays 24 hours of a day.

4. Arrested Development

Now this is not yous usual sitcom. It is crazy. It is weird. But its addictive! Its about one big crazy family where Michael bluth( the only sensible person) takes over his dads business and the countless problems he has to face. It is produced by Ron howard ( Director of A beautiful mind, Da vinci code) and it is the highest rated comedy in IMDB. Now that is something right?!

5. Sherlock

 The name is Holmes. Sherlock Holmes

This is the only show on this list which is still on air. Well Sherlock is a UK TV series telcasted in BBC which is basically the modern interpration of the most genius detective we have ever known.

Only 6 episodes till now, but each episode is for about 90 mins and hence its gives a feeling of watching a movie. Brilliantly written and technically way ahead of all other tv series.  This is the perfect homage to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and I will even say that it is even better than the Sherlock holmes movies directed by Guy Ritchie. With just two seasons, it has become a masterpiece.

Hope you liked my list. Well these are my personal views and I haven’t seen all the shows on TV. Im sure there are quite a few,  equally good shows  which I haven’t seen yet.  

So what is your list? Let me know!

Thanks!

A Tale of 3 movies

Bollywood- Well isn’t the name itself copied (oh sorry, “inspired”) from Hollywood?

Ever since the 90s, Bollywood has remade a lot of movies from hollywood, kollywood, tollywood, malluwood,sandalwood and god knows from how many other woods ! Just in this year, top grossers of Bollywood- Bodygaurd and Singham are remakes of South Indian movies. And before that movies like- Ghajini, Garam masala, Hera Pheri, Wanted were all quite successful remakes. Then movies like Humraaz, Murder, Naqaab were all remade from Hollywood movies. Well it is definitely not a bad thing to remake, not at all! But copying someone else’s work and taking the credit for themselves?

As we saw in the list above, these are all remade/ copied from movies. But I’m going to talk about 3 movies which are copied from TV series and not really many are aware of them.First in the list is the movie NEWYORK 2009 directed by Kabir khan and written by Aditya Chopra.The movie was a hit and was praised for its ‘fresh’ story. But no one realised that it’s a blatant copy from the TV series LOST.

The story is about a taxi driver (Neil Nithin Mukesh) in New York who is arrested by the cops and they ask him to go undercover, because they suspect his college buddy (john Abraham) is a terrorist now. So Neil is forced by the FBI agent to catch up his old friend and track his activities. Then he realises John is actually a terrorist and he tries to stop him. But in the end, John’s bomb plan is stopped and he dies.

LOST is my all-time favourite TV series. It is escapist television at its best! New York is copied from the 21^st episode of Season 1 of LOST.

 In the show, Sayid jarrah is captured by a CIA agent and she asks him to go undercover because Sayid’s friend when he was studying in Cairo University is a suspected terrorist now. The story is same as I described above for New York. Here also in the climax, Sayid reveals to his friend that he is an undercover , when his friend is about to bomb a building and he stops him. It ends up with his friend's death and mission is aborted. To clear the doubts, this episode was aired in 2005 and New York was released in 2009.

There is also a particular scene in New York which is copied not from a Tv series, but from the movie Crash. The scene is like two police officers stop a car and they molest a lady while her helpless male friend watches. That is a rip off from the 2004 movie CRASH.

Let’s move on to the second movie in the list which is I hate Luv stories. If you hate Love stories, this is the movie you should skip first. It is a cheesy love story written and directed by Punit Malhotra. So is the story of this movie also copied from a TV series? No... Why? Because the movie has got no story!

But most of the scenes from this movie (including the climax) are copied from the popular sitcom HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER.

First one I would like to mention is HOT BADTAMEEZ scale mentioned in the movie which is purely copied from the HOT CRAZY scale of Barney Stinson.

Then you have so many small things in the movie like, a wingman; pickup lines which are all lifted from the TV show. Especially the “I’m watching you” sign portrayed by Barney is copied here.

They even lifted a joke totally from HIMYM.  Check out the conversation below.

Robin: My father was a cigar fanatic, it was the only way to get his attention.

Barney: Father issues. Hot.

Robin: I know... I was this close to being a huge slut.

Barney: Slut would have been better, but I'll settle for bro. Especially now that Ted's with Victoria and can't drink. Because he's pregnant. Cause he's the girl.

Robin: Oh, come on, Ted can't be pregnant. You need to have sex to get pregnant.

Barney: What up! Freeze frame high five!

The same joke is copied and that is self-explanatory in the image below:

At last there is the Climax scene in “I hate Luv stories”, where in Sonam kapoor is watching a romantic movie and in that movie, the hero is running across the streets to meet his girl and propose to her. At the same time, Imran khan in real is running down the roads to theatre to meet sonam and propose. So both the scenes are shown simultaneously. This concept is a rip off from HIMYM season 5 episode 23. It is the same thing what Ted does.

Moving on to the last movie in the list: Game (2011) written by Althea Delmas Kaushal and directed by Abhinay deo (yeah the guy who made Delhi belly). The movie is not really a total rip off, but the crux of the movie is. It is about a murder mystery. And that is exactly the same from the TV series MONK from the episode “Mr.Monk is underwater”.  

In the movie, Everyone believes  Mr.Malhotra  killed himself by shooting in the head, because everyone heard the gun shot when it happened and the door was locked from inside, so there is no way anyone could have entered. But what actually happened is his maid went and shot him first with a gun fitted with silencer and then she places a firecracker inside and lit it ans as she comes out , she locks the door from outside. When the firecracker bursts, everyone thinks that it is the gun shot sound and they break open the door and go inside to see him dead. At that time, the maid secretly slips the door key into the dead body's pocket. The scene is exactly the same in MONK except for the characters.

To read more about the monk episode you can visit : http://monk.wikia.com/wiki/Mr._Monk_Is_Underwater

To conclude, why are our writers so much depended on others works? Are they seriously out of ideas? I don’t understand, because if you take the case of MONK, it is a TV series where each episode has a unique murder and it is solved by the end of the episode and there are more than 100 episodes of it. So if they could think of 100 such stories, why can’t our writers think of one story properly?! Well let’s just hope at least in 2012 we get some really good and original movies in the country.

Thank you all for liking my first post J and I wish you a Merry Christmas!